Speaking at a media briefing, National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) Director General Francis Mejja said they are considering reviewing the timeline issued for matatus to implement the new psv body construction standards, to prevent deaths during accidents.
@ntsa_kenya Chairman Jackson Waweru is addressing the press in regards to the increased number of accidents on the road and Wednesday’s Fort tenan tragedy #TheDailyBrief with @SamWNjoroge pic.twitter.com/jC97ePrsJ4
— K24 TV (@K24Tv) October 11, 2018
According to the NTSA boss, they could not immediately enforce the new regulations because it would mean removing most PSVs from the roads, causing a transport crisis.
“All buses currently being manufactured for use as PSV, effective May 22, 2017 are fully in compliance with that standard. The issue that we have is what do we do with the more than 100,000 buses on our roads that were there before these standards came into effect?” posed Mejja.
“For them to comply they have to be stripped completely and build afresh. The understanding was to give a transition of seven years in which everybody was to conform… However, in light of what we have seen and continuous loss of life this is something we think we can revisit with a view to see whether we can bring this forward for every one to comply with these standards,” said Mejja.
Mejja added: “If this bus was constructed with those standards we would have less people die.”
As per the said regulations, all metals inside the bus are required to have smooth and not sharp edges to prevent passengers from being pierced when an accident occurs.
Also introduced are anti-rolling bars which are continuous rolling bars fitted inside the body of the vehicle so that in the event of an accident it becomes very difficult for the canopy of the bus to collapse.
The seats on the bus are supposed to be secured on the chassis and not the body of the bus, while the door is expected to be wide enough to allow for easy entry and exit.
The number of people known to have died from the Wednesday morning bus accident in Kericho has risen to 55, according to police.
At least 40 people died on the spot after a passenger bus christened Homeboyz was involved in a grisly accident at 4am on the Kisumu-Muhoroni highway at Fort Ternan area in Kericho.
More victims who had sustained serious injuries passed on while undergoing emergency treatment at various hospitals around Kericho.
Kericho County Police Commander James Mogera had initially indicated that the death toll was 50 — among them 31 men, 12 women and seven children.
Fort Ternan Police Station OCS Charles Ocharo said the bus was heading to Western Kenya from Nairobi when it veered off the road.